I was introduced to Joe by producer Paul Webster, who very perceptively imagined what Joe might need at that point in his own development, and had seen some of that in my music. “Pride and Prejudice” was probably the most important of all our collaborations, in the sense that we learnt to trust each other in many different ways, we discovered a number of things that are important for both of us. As for the classical tone, I am always at a loss when I hear that word, and I am certain that “classical” means different things to different people. I’d rather stay away from those dangerous words.

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Did you do your own research into Winston Churchill after getting the “Darkest Hour” assignment?

A little: initially to find out if Churchill liked music, and what he would be listening to, if he did. Not much, it turns out. Joe was thinking of having some soldiers singing at the end of the movie, while my initial vague notion for the score was to incorporate in some way the “voice of the people”. I started researching old British folk music from the past centuries. I was following the idea that those old tunes carry something of the people from which they sprung. I also imagined that “the people” were present all along, even if what we see on screen is mostly the upper class wrestling with the nation’s destiny. I intended to rework the accompaniment of some old folk tunes, and some of that work is still in the score, even if the folk tunes have completely gone. In fact, we ended up abandoning the idea of using voices altogether, even if we recorded some. It wasn’t feeling right, because it introduced a note of nostalgia that we wanted to stay away from.

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One of my favorite scores of yours is “V For Vendetta,” a more relevant-than-ever movie about a fascist takeover. Given that England was facing this, do you think there are thematic ideas in how you played Hitler’s threat that connect “Darkest Hour” to that score?

This is interesting. I can recognize in the music of “Darkest Hour” a faint connection to the music of “V for Vendetta.” There is an “aspirational” harmonic sequence, something that is forever trying to “raise”, in both scores, and they both use a particular chord shift. I didn’t do it particularly consciously, but it is there, and it might be a reflection of my gut musical reaction to the idea of freedom from bullying and oppression, literally an “up-rise”.

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Dario Marianelli's violin concerto (aka "Voyager Concerto"), written in 2014 for violinist Jack Liebeck. This is a live recording from 2015 in Stockholm, with Daniel Harding conducting the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Liebeck as soloist:

Here's a description of the piece:

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Marianelli’s Voyager concerto— named for the twin NASA space probes launched in 1977 — is part of the QSO’s Journey Through the Cosmos concerts, featuring violinist Jack Liebeck and another, more unusual, concert soloist, English particle physicist Brian Cox. The QSO has scheduled four performances, which will bring orchestral music into a kind of celestial harmony with an illustrated science lecture.

Born in Pisa, Marianelli was a teenager when the Voyager interplanetary probes were sent into space, and he recalls being fascinated by the mission. The spacecraft each carried a gold disc, like an LP record, containing sounds, images and greetings from planet Earth for the benefit of any extraterrestrial beings that might encounter them.

“The chances of it being found are infinitesimal but, still, it is a message in a bottle,” says Marianelli. “People had to choose what went on the record, and there are about 30 pieces of music; Bach made it with three. It was a wonderful selection of music from all cultures.”

One of the Bach pieces is the Gavotte en Rondeau from Partita No 3 for Violin — the others are from The Well-Tempered Clavier and the second Brandenburg concerto — and Marianelli has adapted the solo fiddle part for his modern-day concerto. He decided that Bach’s violin would be the “voice of the Voyager”, and that there would be frequent refer­ences to it, through variation, deconstruction and direct quotation.

Marianelli had been approached by English violinist Liebeck, a young musician who has made several visits to Australia. Liebeck previously had collaborated on Marianelli’s film scores for Jane Eyre and Anna Karenina, and he is also artistic director of the Oxford May Music Festival, which combines science, music and art.

The Voyager is no walk in the park for the soloist. Marianelli says the piece is not in the traditional concerto mode — where soloist and orchestra are engaged in heroic dialogue or struggle — but instead represents a journey.

“The main idea is that as the solo violin travels through space, it constantly meets new landscapes, new events. The orchestra would represent … some of these events, like meeting the storms of Jupiter or passing by Europa. All of these events are quite separate and well defined. I think it will be easy, listening to the concerto, to know when one ends and the next one starts.” The London-based composer considered using electronics or noises transmitted by the Voyager probes but decided the concerto should simply be a piece for violin and orchestra.

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Dario Marianelli's violin concerto (aka "Voyager Concerto"), written in 2014 for violinist Jack Liebeck. This is a live recording from 2015 in Stockholm, with Daniel Harding conducting the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Liebeck as soloist:

Here's a description of the piece:

It's a very haunting and fascinating piece! Recommended listen.

Wow. This is lovely. I'm surprised it hasn't gotten more attention! Thanks for the share!